The announcement by all the Palestinian factions including Hamas this week that they are willing to move towards a ceasefire in Gaza on the basis of an amended US proposal has not confirmed hopes for a possible truce given the Israeli military action on the ground.
Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions in Gaza announced their approval of partial truce proposals that were originally proposed by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and amended by the Egyptian and Qatari mediators who have been trying to stop the Israeli war on Gaza since it began on 7 October 2023.
Since then, there have been fewer than eight weeks of pause in the hostilities in the entire 22 months of the war.
The approval by Hamas of the proposals came after that of the other factions and hours after President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and visiting Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdul-Rahman bin Jassim Al-Thani met to discuss ways to give a push to a ceasefire in Gaza on Monday.
The deal that Hamas, along with the other factions, agreed to includes the cessation of military operations in Gaza for eight weeks, a significant relocation of Israeli troops in the strip, the uninterrupted entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid, and a partial release of the remaining Israeli hostages held since 7 October 2023 in parallel with the release of a number of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
Two informed sources said on Monday evening that Hamas had agreed to the proposals after the mediators had accommodated its wish for the deal to include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Morag Corridor that Israel created in April this year in southern Gaza.
Carrying the name of an Israeli settlement that was dismantled in 1995 upon the return of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in line with the Oslo Accords, this corridor was set to be the “demarcation line” established by Israel for the Palestinian presence in Gaza.
Earlier this week, Israel said it would provide tents to be put up south of the Morag Corridor to accommodate the close to 800,000 or more Gazans who will want to escape the anticipated hostilities that are forecast to start in less than two weeks after the plan announced by Netanyahu and his generals to reoccupy Gaza.
“The Morag Corridor is essential for the Israeli displacement plan, and Egypt supported the wish of Hamas to insist on having the Israeli troops pull out from it,” said an informed Egyptian source.
He added that while Hamas is keen to avoid the displacement of half of the around two million Gazans from the north and middle to the south of the Strip, Egypt is also keen to avoid seeing a massive exodus of Palestinians to the south of Gaza near Rafah and on the borders with Egypt.
None of the Egyptian and foreign sources who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, expected Netanyahu to pull his troops out of the Morag Corridor. Consequently, none of them seemed to anticipate that a ceasefire would be agreed on by Israel or, even if it were approved, it could be sustained.
What is more likely, the sources suggested, is a new phase in the Israeli offensive that will bring about the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into southern Gaza.
They also agreed that it would be up to the Gazans to decide whether they want to move to the tents south of the Morag Corridor or continue to suffer hunger, illness, and military strikes leading to death in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“Once in the south, it would be up to them to decide whether they want to continue to be lumped together in a highly populated block or move on,” said one Cairo-based foreign diplomat.
He added that Netanyahu was going to offer “safe exits” out of Gaza and “possible destinations” for those who would agree “to just go”. Otherwise, the sources added, Netanyahu, with some regional support, wants to throw the ball into Egypt’s court, forcing it to look after the section of Gaza where the vast majority of the population would be lumped together.
All Egyptian officials have been opposed to all plans either to displace the Palestinians in Gaza or to have Egypt administer Gaza, either entirely or partially. On Monday, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said Egypt would not take part in inflicting a new major injustice on the Palestinian people.
In a joint press conference with Abdelatty on the Egyptian side of the Rafah Crossing on Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa praised Egypt’s firm stance against the displacement of the Palestinians.
However, Cairo-based foreign diplomats said that the issue of displacement could be much more layered because Israel has plans to move the Palestinians with or without the cooperation of Egypt.
They said that Netanyahu believes he is unstoppable and that this is making him more aggressive to the dismay of pro-peace capitals inside and outside of the Middle East, including Cairo, which has abandoned its otherwise cautious statements on Israel.
The developments came only days after Netanyahu talked about what he called his political and spiritual commitment to establish “Greater Israel”.
A political and biblical concept used by ultra-orthodox and radical Jews, the term is often used to refer to the expanded borders of Israel, established on parts of the historic land of Palestine in what is known as the Nakba in 1948, to include all of historic Palestine, parts of Jordan, parts of Egypt, and parts of some other neighbouring Arab states.
It refers to the Arab territories that Israel occupied in June 1967 and extends to other areas in the region.
While compatible with his political creed, Netanyahu’s statement came as a shock to several Arab capitals. “It is not so much that he is thinking about it; it is rather that he is now openly and shamelessly talking about it,” commented one Egyptian source.
Both Amman and Cairo issued statements decrying Netanyahu’s statements, with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry demanding an explanation of “these media statements”. The Arab League issued a statement criticising Netanyahu’s comments and blaming him for dragging the Middle East further away from peace.
“I cannot say that this is just something that he is saying to appease the radicals in his government or the extremist segment of the Israeli population. I think he really subscribes to the idea,” the same source said. It had been clearly reflected in all of Netanyahu’s political choices.
“Netanyahu does not think that he can invade Egypt or Jordan, but he is certainly trying to eliminate the existence of a Palestinian population and a Palestinian nation,” the source said. It was for this reason that he has been “playing all sorts of games to avoid signing up to a truce to end the war on Gaza.”
Having always been sceptical about the possibility of a sustainable ceasefire in the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, this source said on Sunday that now more than ever it seems highly unlikely that Netanyahu will move towards one.
Throughout the week, the Israeli military action on the ground in Gaza has indicated that what is happening now is a new phase of the invasion. On Sunday, the Israeli army chief spoke openly of plans to occupy most of Gaza.
“Today, we are approving the plan for the next phase of the war,” Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said during a field visit to the Palestinian territory, according to an Israeli army statement.
He added that Israel will continue to strike Gaza “until the decisive defeat of Hamas”.
With no specific way of quantifying or defining the “decisive defeat of Hamas”, official sources in Cairo said that the statement was an indication of a longer and more deadly war.
Since Israel started its war on Gaza, at least 65,000 people have been reported dead, including dozens who died of hunger, and over 120,000 have been wounded, with many left with crippling injuries.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 21 August, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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